SLIFT - Fantasia

Heavier and heavier, further and further out. This might well be the goal that the Occitan band Slift set for themselves before heading into the studio to record “Fantasia”, the fourth chapter of their discography.

Their space-rock journey began with 2020's “Ummon”, a shift in direction that wasn't entirely unexpected after a debut firmly rooted in psych-garage territory, albeit titled “La planète inexplorée”. They then continued with the mighty follow-up “Ilion” in 2024.

This new album, “Fantasia”, tells us two things right away. The first is that the Occitans Jean Fossat (guitar and vocals), Rémi Fossat (bass and vocals) and Canek Flores (drums) have absolutely no intention of coming back down to earth. The second is that they want to make more noise than ever, pushing guitars and vocals into previously unexplored metal territory – just think, for instance, of the heavy metal riff driving the unhinged “The Day Of Execution”.

Amid inter-dimensional rifts torn open by keyboards and guitars darting through space debris, it's the epic eight minutes of the title track that reconnect us with the Slift mothership. Once aboard, it's on “Corrupted Sky” that the French trio push their juggernaut's engines to the max, unleashing a rhythmic storm and firing off jagged solos and psychedelic flanger effects towards the stars.

A tense, imaginative “The Village”, sung like a Homeric poem, and a floating, dreamlike “Secret Mirror”, rippled only occasionally by flashes of guitar lightning, add variety and twists to the story.

This time too, clean production and immaculate technique don't seem to be a priority for the Toulouse trio, who instead bet everything on violence, noise, evocative imagery and expressive urgency.

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15/06/2026